Nollaig Shona Duit
Happy Holidays from Dublin
As last week’s edition of Message from the Underworld was winging its way to you, I was flying east to Newark, New Jersey, on the first leg of my journey to Dublin, Ireland.
Early last year, when the news broke that the vaccine would be available soon, my wife and I bought tickets for Dublin on the spur of the moment. (Later we added a ticket for my daughter Annie.) I think Nuvia sensed that the chaos the pandemic that has been so disastrous for students, teachers, and the entire education system across the globe, would continue on into the summer, but surely things would be better by the holidays…
Sadly, no. It’s been interesting to say the least to be in Europe as the responses to Omicron roll out. To fly to the EU we needed to provide proof of vaccination and a PCR test within 72 hours of our departure, which made us feel a lot better about the long flight. In Dublin, we were delighted to find that masks were mandated in the shops and that restaurants required proof of vaccination. We also had to provide a phone number for contact tracing. Masks and hand sanitizer were available everywhere.
But as news of a dramatic spike in COVID-19 cases hit the airwaves, Dublin responded by announcing the closure of restaurants, pubs, and clubs after 8pm effective on Monday, December 20. Still, the mood in the city was festive over the weekend as people went about their holiday shopping and enjoying what might be their last night out in a while.
The three of us had a lovely time in the Hibernian metropolis. We didn’t try to do too much. We visited the Book of Kells at Trinity College and the library’s long room was truly awesome—a must for anyone who loves books. We roamed around St. Stephen’s Green and visited the shops in Temple Bar. We browsed bookshops, bumped into the James Joyce statue across from the General Post Office, and whether we knew it or now, followed the footsteps of Stephen Dedalus and Leopold Bloom—the heroes of Joyce’s Ulysses. Although my obsession with Joyce isn’t nearly as intense as it once was, I’d be lying if I said I didn’t find it all terrifically inspiring.
Also, I discovered that Guinness has finally released a zero alcohol version of its world-famous stout on tap: Guinness 0.0. It looks like a pint Guinness, feels like a pint of Guinness, and tastes like a pint of Guinness. On this last point I will allow some dispute but not from my fellow Americans. Guinness was not meant to travel great distances and no one knows how to pour a proper point in America anyway. What I or any American thinks Guinness tastes like is a moot point, but the Irish bartenders I talked to, the fucking connoisseurs, agree it’s pretty close. As far as I’m concerned it’s a goddam Christmas miracle.
On our last night Dublin, we met up with my friend John Leary (hi John!) and his family for an all too brief dinner in a pub alongside the Liffey. On Sunday morning my friend Tom, whom I’ve written about before, picked us up and drove us up to Belfast. Tom is my oldest friend and we’ve had many adventures together, but he has a lot to celebrate. He just received his Master’s degree in Education and yesterday was his birthday. I’ll have more to say about our adventures in Belfast next week.
I’m writing this in the Dublin airport where I’ve just dropped off Annie and I’m waiting to make sure that her flight leaves on time and in one piece. Then it’s back to Belfast and further adventures in Northern Ireland…
(If you’re interested, I’ve been posting lots of photos and stories on Instagram.)
PssSST (Loose Nut Edition)
After Damaged, Loose Nut is my second favorite Black Flag studio album but it’s probably the least visually appealing. I mean look at these colors. They just don’t belong together. And the back cover? The magenta lettering on the burnt orange background is practically illegible.
Loose Nut was recorded in March 1985 during the same sessions that produced Process of Weeding Out and parts of In My Head. According to a press release that Ray Farrell sent out on March 18, 1985, Loose Nut was scheduled to be released on May 14, 1985.
The record is also a bit of an anomaly as it features songs by multiple songwriters. In addition to Ginn, the album included material by Kira Roessler, Bill Stevenson, and even ex-member Chuck Dukowski. Ginn even thanks his old girlfriend Medea for “Bastard in Love.” In my opinion, Loose Nut is the record that best reflects Black Flag behaving like a real band with all of the members contributing creatively to the final product.
My favorite track on the record is “Modern Man,” the song that Dukowski wrote with his bandmate in Würm. What’s remarkable to me is how unremarkable the original version sounds. The recording is muddy and the parts feel jumbled together. The best thing about the song is the vocals.
Now listen to Black Flag’s version.
Nothing like the original, right? One of the things I love about heavy metal is the way the truly epic songs build from the so-so to the sublime. Black Flag does that here with its slower, almost operatic opening. It’s a cliché to describe the sound of a guitar as “wailing,” but Ginn really makes that Armstrong weep on this track.
In my opinion, the best version of the song appears on The ’82 Demos with a totally different line-up: Chuck Dukowski on bass, Greg Ginn and Dez Cadena on guitar, Chuck Biscuits on drums, and Henry Rollins manning the microphone.
After “Nervous Breakdown,” this might be my favorite Black Flag song period.
The ’82 Demos aren’t an official release, but a bootleg of a recording session shortly after the band ended its relationship with Unicorn Records and began working at Total Access Studios in Redondo Beach. My War, Zen Arcade, and Double Nickels on the Dime were all on the horizon. Really makes you wonder what might have been if this was the follow-up to Damaged and not My War.
But by the time SST turned the corner on its lawsuit with Unicorn, Biscuits, Cadena, and Dukowski would all be out of the band.
By some strange anomaly, Biscuits was briefly in both Black Flag and the Circle Jerks and the only official recording he did with either band is the lounge version of “When the Shit Hits the Fan” on the Repo Man soundtrack.
Where does Loose Nut sit in your rankings?
That’s it for now. Next week I’ll have my annual round-up of all the books I read in 2021. Until then, be safe, be kind, and be merry.
